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Opinions of Wednesday, 20 March 2013

Columnist: Jackson, Margaret

NPP Breaks The Law: Gov’t Must Act Decisively

By Margaret Jackson

March 19, 2013

We have this bunch of people in our midst who claim they are highly talented, educated and law abiding citizens, yet they break the laws governing the country with impunity. We even have many of these people roaming the streets of Ghana wearing garbs ascribed to lawyers and calling themselves ‘learned people’ when in fact they are totally hollow both inside and outside their thinking scope. They even go on air and make wild allegations without any shred of evidence and walk away without any shame. This bunch of people or group who have no regard for the rule of law are no other people than the NPP.

The NPP is telling Ghanaians that if you do not ‘trust’ the police, you can take the law into your own hands and do your own thing. Because that man, Owusu Afriyie, who came from nowhere and was made the General Secretary of a party like the NPP, was on air claiming that the NPP as a party does not trust the ’NDC Policemen’, so they are doing their own investigations on the auto accident by Dr Mahamadu Bawumia. Anytime I hear people like that man speak, I weep for the NPP and those who gave him that position.

And as if what Owusu Afriyie said on air concerning Bawumia’s accident was a prelude to something mischievous, the NPP people have taken the law into their own hands. Dr Bawumia, who has twice stood on the ticket of the NPP as their vice-presidential candidate and lost in both steads, has ridiculed the police by not reporting the accident he had to the police. And to make matters worse, the SUV vehicle which was involved in that accident has been towed away by the NPP to an unknown destination without the police being allowed to do any investigations.

I will not go into the silly allegations made by Afriyie that President Mahama and the National Security were behind the accident. I will talk about it another time. For now my beef has got to do with the attitude of the NPP folks who think that they come before the laws of the country.

Are the NPP folks today telling Ghanaians that they can do anything that pleases them without due regard to the laws of the country? If you have people like Owusu Afriyie in the helm of affairs of the NPP, you can understand why the party has lost two elections in a row.

I am calling on the Inspector General of Police to exercise the powers vested in him by the country to the fullest. Somebody must be made to pay for this breach of the law. It seems the NDC has been too soft leading the NPP to become very emboldened.

Are you surprised that the NPP feel so emboldened that they do everything and get away with it. Ever since they lost the elections in 2008, they have done so many provocative acts which no regime on earth would have tolerated them, yet they have been made to get away with them by the ruling NDC government. As a result, the NPP folks somehow feel that they are the ruling party.

This is no joking matter. The ruling NDC government must never allow the NPP to usurp its powers. Whoever towed the vehicle without allowing the police to perform their duty must be arrested and prosecuted. I know very well that in the United States if you are involved in an accident, you do not leave the scene of the accident until the police comes to the scene. President Mahama must take the bull by the horn because the NPP folks are doing everything to make the country ungovernable.

Bawumia schooled in the United States, and is very much aware that if his accident had occurred in the United States and he had left the accident scene and also towed his vehicle without the authorization of the police, he would have been charged. These are a bunch of people who want to rule Ghanaians but have no regard for the laws of the country. If a precedent is not set, we should not be surprised if we wake up tomorrow and see Owusu Afriyie bussing some NPP hooligans to take over the police headquarters. The NDC have been too soft with the NPP, which is why the late President Mills through President Mahama have been accused of so many unproven acts. I remember the days of ex-President Kufuor when a serial caller in Kumasi who went on air to accuse Kufuor of traveling a lot was invited by the police.

Whenever accidents happen it is the sole responsibility of the police to go to the scene of the accident and conduct their investigations. We have nothing in our laws which states that if you don’t trust the police, you’ve got to do your own investigations. And if we have a general secretary of the NPP who claims to be a qualified lawyer, breaking the laws of our country with impunity, then you can understand why Ghanaians decided to allow the knucklehead elephant to remain in the bush.

magjackson80@yahoo.com http://majjacks80.blogspot.com